Emergency response organizations increasingly depend on wireless communication technology to provide communication during emergencies. Disadvantageously, however, emergencies often result in damage to, or sometimes even destruction of, existing network infrastructure, thereby preventing communications between emergency personnel. In other words, the existing communications infrastructure lacks survivability. Furthermore, even if portions of the existing communications infrastructure do survive the emergency, the existing communications infrastructure may not be able to handle the increased traffic load typical during emergencies. Specifically, remaining portions of the existing communication infrastructure may be overloaded as emergency personnel, and the general public, attempt various types of communications. Such deficiencies became clear during the events of Sep. 11, 2001, and again during the events of Hurricane Katrina.
In a wireless network, mobile nodes (e.g., wireless user terminals) being served may move between wireless access points (e.g., from being served by one base station to being served by another base station). Mobile IP, an IP-layer mobility management protocol, is commonly used in wireless networks to keep track of movements of wireless user terminals between base stations. Disadvantageously, Mobile IP requires use of a dedicated Home Agent and Foreign Agent for providing mobility management. Furthermore, Mobile IPv4 suffers from inefficient triangular routing of packets, thereby resulting in additional transmissions in order to route packets through the network where such additional transmissions consume precious network resources and result in network congestion.